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Now he has the chance to add blood and sweat, too. The loyalty hat-trick.

“I remember crying when I saw Al MacInnis get traded,” confessed the newest Calgary Flame, after arriving from The Big Smoke via an Air Canada commercial flight at 11 a.m. Sunday morning. “He was my favourite player growing up. I remember I had the picture of him walking out with all his sticks. I didn’t really understand the business of the game then, I was so young.

“After that, every year for my birthday I’d get tickets to the Blues to go watch him play.

“Just looking up to guys like Jarome (Iginla), Joe Nieuwendyk. I was a diehard fan, for sure. They were my heroes. So to have the opportunity to come back and put on the C is pretty special. I’ve grown up since I was three or four years old wanting to play for the Flames.”

Local boy Colborne, then, arrives seeped in the lore of the Flaming C. That’s always a plus when adding a component. And topping the growth chart at 6-foot-5 he addresses a worrisome lack of size down centre, if not a disquieting lack of steel. Now the Flames have their own Jumbo Joe (albeit one with 1,109 fewer games, 330 less goals and 1,112 points than San Jose’s illustrious model).

Now, while inserting a bit of heft to a problematical position is a good thing, and not downplaying in the slightest the added allure of Colborne being a local boy to boot, resist the urge to get too silly, too soon, please.

Perspective, people. Not asking you to go all Larry David, exactly, but for the moment it might be wise to Curb Your Enthusiasm. We’re still talking 16 aggregate NHL regular-season games. One goal. Six points.

“I think,” said Colborne upon touchdown Sunday, “that I’m ready. It was more of just a situational thing in Toronto. Again, I learned so much in Boston my first few years and felt my game really grew and I was able to take the next big step last year and now I’m ready to come and hopefully help out a young team that’s going through a rebuild. I’ve played against a lot of the other young guys when we were in Abbotsford, guys like Sven (Baertschi). They have a lot of skill, a lot of talent and I’m looking forward to working with them.”

From a Flames’ standpoint, though, this is essentially a no-lose gamble. They add a rangy body, still only 23, with just this season left on his contract that pays him $600,000. And it cost them but a conditional fourth-round pick.

Perhaps they can form an advantageous alliance. Joe Colborne, be sure, has more on the line in making this relationship work than they do.

“You realize that there are a lot of centremen in Toronto,” he explained. “You can kinda do the math yourself. You see the roles they wanted me to play. I think I’ll step in and hopefully have a bigger role here and just maybe show what I can do a little more.

“They’ve said they wanted a centreman and a bigger guy and I can be both those things. Whatever role they want me to do, I’m ready.”

Part of that readiness steams from the full healing of a nagging wrist problem suffered two Christmases ago, the first serious hockey-related injury Colborne can recall.

“I had a great start to the year,’’ he sighed. “I got called up for my stint with the Leafs and actually had some pretty good success and then I tore ligaments. We decided I would just get cortisone shots and I’d just battle the rest of the year. In order to keep it quiet we weren’t telling the media anything but when my production dipped they started to get on me.

“Surgery the next summer. I took the whole summer to recover. It was frustrating. It’s not an easy path to come back from. It was a learning experience. But now that I’m back, able to have a good summer working out, and finally be healthy, I’m ready to make a full-time contribution.”

The guy with scratch, and plenty of it — his dad, Paul, is currently president and CEO of Surge Energy — is once again starting from scratch. That intense scrutiny, the curious interest, after being drafted 16th overall by Boston in 2008, and a subsequent trade to Brian Burke’s Maple Leafs, has faded.

This opportunity does, though, represent for him a fresh start in a hand-picked town with a franchise down on its knees begging for an injection of youthful excitement.

“I’ve already talked to coach (Bob Hartley) and Mr. Feaster and it’s an opportunity I’m looking forward to grabbing and running with. Mark Giordano already texted me. And Gally (T.J. Galiardi) texted me, I’ve known him a while. So I think it’ll be an easy transition. There seems to a lot of excitement among the guys to get the organization moving in the direction we want. Having Brian here is a good first step.

“I have so much respect for that man and what he’s done. He was able to kind of battle through that Toronto media. He’s done great things for the Toronto organization.”

Burke’s Maple Leaf-webbed fingerprints are, naturally, all over this acquisition, him having swung the deal that brought Colborne over from Boston to the Toronto organization in the first place.

“Brian knows him, knows his character, knows his work ethic, knows his hockey sense,” acknowledged Flames’ GM Jay Feaster. “For us to to be able to get a guy 23 years old, and a six-foot-five centreman, it fits in with the rebuild from the standpoint of his age and certainly a position we’re always trying to upgrade.”

An immediate upgrade?

“Yeah. Otherwise we don’t do the deal. He’s a guy that requires waivers to go down. If we didn’t think he was ready to play — and play on a regular basis — we wouldn’t have traded for him.”

Funny thing is, Joe Colborne, Calgary born and raised, lifelong Flames’ zealot, hasn’t actually played a full game on the Scotiabank Saddledome ice. Not one.

“Never. I played one time when I was about six years old when you come out between periods and play for three minutes and everyone’s just following the puck around.”

Sunday he’ll finally get the chance when Vancouver opens Calgary’s 2013-2014 home account. And you can bet large that he’ll be met by a rapturous reception from family and friends.

“Oh!” blurted Colborne. “Every time I turn on my phone I have about 10, 15 new texts. I haven’t got back to three-quarters of the people. But it’s awesome. I’m going to have to, you know, figure out a way to distance myself from a lot of people and just focus on hockey in the next while.

“I’ve been just worried about getting my apartment packed up and getting all my stuff stuffed in the back of my car. I got about three and a half hours sleep last night. I just the spent the whole flight trying to catch up on some sleep. So it’s been a whirlwind.”

Things won’t slow down any the next while, either.

Day off for the Flames Monday. Travel to Washington on Tuesday. The season opener at the Verizon Centre against Ovie and the Caps on Thursday, quick hop over to Columbus and the Blue Jackets the next night.

Not that you’ll hear the slightest squawk out of this town’s new Jumbo Joe wannabe. Blood and sweat added to those long-ago tears.

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Johnson: Colborne realizes a ‘dream come true’ after being traded to his hometown Flames

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